isn’t wise to get too intimate with a boy like that. He will think he can come here again. I’m surprised that Alan didn’t take him away at once. It’s all well enough to be kind, but I really couldn’t have you asking a boy like that here regularly. Sherrill, you never stop to think about things like that——”
“Listen, Mother dear. You needn’t worry about Bob. He is going to Egypt day after tomorrow, to be gone three years on an archaeological expedition with Professor Hodge. So, you see, there’s nothing to worry about at all. He came to ask Alan something, that was all, and we were just being kind to him. We found out he has been awfully lonely, and Mother, he was so pleased to have somebody a little friendly! You ought to have heard him. I felt so ashamed I didn’t know what to do.”
“Is that the red-haired Lincoln boy that used to drive by here in that old rattlely Ford?” asked Sherrill’s grandmother, looking up with sudden interest. “I always liked that boy’s looks. He reminded me of a cousin of mine that ran away and joined the navy. He came back a first-rate man, too. I always thought his aunt that brought him up never understood him. She fussed over him a lot.”
“Now, Mother!” said Sherrill’s mother with a tender smile. “You always were a romantic dear. Who would ever have thought you noticed a boy going by on the street?”
“Well, I did!” said Grandmother Sherrill. “And I’m glad you were nice to him, Sherrill. If he’s going to Egypt he can’t do you any harm, and anyway, I’ll bank on your good sense to take care of yourself anywhere.”
“Now, Mother! You’re spoiling Sherrill!” The mother smiled. “However did a boy like that get a chance to go on an expedition of that sort? That is a great honor. Professor Hodge must have approved of him or he never would have asked him.”
It was on Sherrill’s lips to tell about Alan, but remembering his request that she keep it to herself, she closed her mouth and turned away smiling. By and by, when it didn’t matter, she would tell Mother what a wonderful boy Alan MacFarland had been. She said good night and went singing up to her room.
“She’s a good girl, Mary,” said her grandmother.
“Yes, she is, Mother. I didn’t mean that about your spoiling her.”
“Humph!” said Grandmother, folding away her sewing and taking off her spectacles. “Yes, she’s a good girl, and that Alan MacFarland is a good boy. I’m glad they made that other boy have a good time. He never looked to me as if he was very happy.”
Over at the MacFarland house, the two boys entered quietly, Bob protesting that he ought not to go in lest it might disturb the invalid. They took off their shoes and went silently up the stairs, but not too silently so that Alan’s mother heard him and came out to the landing to smile at him and give him a good-night kiss. She wore a pretty blue robe, and her eyes were bright and more rested looking. Bob watched her in wonder, as she reassured her son about his father.
“He’s resting very well,” she whispered. “The doctor thinks he may have a better day tomorrow.”
Alan introduced his friend, and Mrs. MacFarland gave him smile of welcome and a soft handclasp.
“I thought I oughtn’t to come,” he whispered, “but he made me.”
“Alan’s friends are always welcome,” she said, “and you won’t disturb anybody. Alan’s room is over in the tower, and nobody can hear you talk.”
“I wish I had a mother,” said Bob, as they entered Alan’s room and the light was switched on. “Gee! It must be great! I hardly remember mine.”
Then he looked around Alan’s room.
“Say, boy! If I had a room like this and a mother like yours, you couldn’t drag me to Egypt. I’d stay right here in my home!”
Alan looked at him and then gave a swift glance about his room, with its comfortable furnishings and its evidences on every hand that his tastes and conveniences were consulted.
“Well, there’s something in that!” He grinned. “It is pretty comfortable here. I hadn’t thought of it, but it would be something to leave. However, let’s get down to brass tacks. Let’s run over that list and see what you need to get. Here. Sit down in that big chair. You look all in. I certainly wish I’d known you before and sometimes shared my home with you.”
Bob dropped into the offered chair.
“Boy!” he said. “What I’ve missed!”
And then the two went to work in earnest on the list.
When they finally turned in, there was a good understanding and a hearty liking between them that neither would have believed possible a few hours before. It was with genuine regret that they parted next morning, after eating breakfast together and walking downtown as far as the bank. Alan had insisted that he should be allowed to provide whatever of outfit Bob didn’t have but finally succeeded only in getting him to accept a loan until he could repay it. They stopped at the bank and Alan cashed a check from his own private, precious fund he had been saving toward a new car.
“This is coming back to you the very first bit of salary I can spare from actual expenses,” said Bob as he slipped the roll of bills in his inside pocket.
“If you scrimp yourself, old boy, I’ll take it unkindly. Remember you must keep in good condition, and this is the only share I can have in this affair. It really makes me feel good to have this much.”
“You can’t know how I appreciate it.” Bob beamed with a hearty grip of the other boy’s hand. “And the strange thing about it is, I wouldn’t have taken a red cent from you twenty-four hours before, if I lost all the chances in the universe. That’s how different I feel toward you.”
“Same here!” Alan grinned sheepishly. “What fools we were, pard! Might have had three years to look back upon. What a team we could have made out of that high school scrub if we had just hooked up forces instead of fighting! Hope I remember this lesson always.”
They parted at the street corner, Bob promising to report late that evening and spend the night again with Alan, since he was leaving for New York early the next morning.
As soon as he was alone, the burden of his father’s responsibilities settled down upon Alan’s shoulders heavily. The day looked long and hard before him. He must try to get in touch with the judge again. Perhaps he would have to run up to the city to see those real estate people on the ten o’clock train. How hot the sun seemed, and how uninteresting his own part in life! His heart was going shopping with Bob and selecting the right sweaters and shoes for the trip. But life was not all trips to Egypt. He had business that should engross his every energy.
In the store was a great pile of mail. Another letter of threatening portent from the enemy, with an undertone of assurance that made him uneasy. If he could only read just this one letter to Dad and see what he thought ought to be done about it. But that, of course, was out of the question.
The day proved to be even harder than he had feared. The judge was out of town. Nobody knew just when he would return. Meantime, he would have to act as if he were not going to return, for time was short and the crisis extreme.
He took the ten o’clock train for the city and chased a member of the real estate company for two hours, from place to place, finally locating him at his office at two o’clock—only to find that the purchaser
